Fighting the night Iwo Jima, World War II, and a flyer's life

"What did you do during the war, Dad?" This question was asked by millions of sons and daughters after 1945. Best-selling Hendrickson (Plagued by Fire, 2019) provides an answer in this broad-based, avidly detailed biography of his father, Captain Joseph Hendrickson, and many of his comrades-in-arms. They all flew the legendary P-61 Black Widow night fighter out of Iwo Jima during the last grueling months of WWII. Tender, heartwarming, occasionally frightening, and written in a conversational style that invites the reader into his family, Hendrickson pilots this richly illuminating chronicle across Depression-era Kentucky farmlands to flight school and through his father's deployment in the Pacific and his postwar career as a pilot for Eastern Airlines. Fighting the Night reminds readers that the individuals fighting in a war are all real human beings, each with hopes and dreams and lives that extend far beyond their service, even as their experiences stick with them through to the end. An excellent, engrossing work of family and world history that leaves readers thinking in new ways about the consequences of military service.

Biographer Hendrickson (Plagued by Fire) offers an intimate exploration of the life and military career of his father, U.S. Army Air Corps pilot Joe Hendrickson (1918--2003). Probing his family's history of violence, the author searches for the root of his father's anger and frustration, which was worsened by wartime PTSD. Born in rural Kentucky and forced to leave home at 19 to ease his family's financial burden during the Great Depression, Joe joined the Army four years before Pearl Harbor. He trained as a pilot and eventually flew the P-61 Black Widow, the first U.S. aircraft designed as a night fighter. In March 1945, less than a month after the capture of Iwo Jima, with pockets of Japanese resistance still lingering on the island, his squadron was assigned to fly nightly raids from Iwo Jima against nearby Japanese-held islands. Four days after their arrival, the remnants of the Japanese Army launched a desperate nighttime attack, killing six members of the squadron while Joe and others were holed up in a tent, armed only with pistols. The resulting carnage stayed with him for the rest of his life, though he rarely discussed it. Hendrickson closely and sinuously narrates the painstaking process of piecing together his father's wartime exploits and life story. Coupling a poignant personal journey with propulsive aviation action, this WWII history flies high. (May)

An acclaimed author digs into his father's service in World War II. Like many sons of the Greatest Generation, Hendrickson, author of Plagued by Fire and Hemingway's Boat, regrets not exploring his father's story until after his death. He makes up for it in this detailed, vivid narrative, which benefits from intensive archival research and exhaustive interviews. His father, Joe Paul, was the third of nine children of a hardscrabble Kentucky sharecropper, and he was probably the most ambitious. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1937, trained as a mechanic, and quickly rose to crew chief. He yearned to attend flight school, and in 1942, a few months after getting married, he gained entrance. His highly specialized pilot training, which included work with the high-tech, radar-equipped P-61 Black Widow night fighter, required two years, and he and his family crisscrossed the country, often by car, an experience that exhausted his wife and young children. He was finally sent to the Pacific, arriving at Iwo Jima in March 1945, when the brutal land battle was almost over. Hendrickson delivers a lively account of the following six months. Joe Paul and his unit patrolled and attacked other islands but rarely encountered enemy fighters. Despite several scares, he emerged from the war largely unscathed, raised five children, and enjoyed a long career as a commercial airline pilot. Although he was a strict disciplinarian, his children loved him dearly. Aside from a few details about his family life, the text remains focused on Joe Paul's wartime experiences. A skilled journalist, Hendrickson tracked down and interviewed the children, grandchildren, and cousins of other members of the unit to deliver biographies of other fliers, many of whom had only vague memories of his father. An expert account of a father's WWII experiences that gives his fellow airmen equal attention. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.